


Downpour

by svecounia



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 19:23:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4149846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/svecounia/pseuds/svecounia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most have forgotten the word. Some have willfully dismissed it in disgust. For the first time in living memory (and likely for the last), rain comes to the wasteland.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Downpour

Clouds had been gathering for days, choking out the blue and light. The Wretched below relished it, he could tell. They had languished in the cooling air, lazing and wandering aimlessly about, brave enough to venture out from their crude huts and coverings without fear of the blistering sun, ignorant of what was to come. A few spatterings of gunfire sent them skittering back into their holes, but even his War Boys had grumbled at such an unusual task, their eyes flicking every so often to the skies above, wary and distrustful. 

Unease had lingered in the air and now it pelted down upon them. The Wretched received their punishment, muddy brown rivulets carving out the sands below, rushing through their hovels, carrying away their few belongings with its unforgiving courses. They wanted water, well, now they have it. And he was left only with his higher knowledge for grim company, the knowledge that water was to be controlled, maintained, and instead he was powerless to watch as the rain washed over roads it had taken him years to stabilize. His upper gardens were in shambles, the entire team of greenthumbs working to ensure as few as possible were lost, panicked and frenzied. The pounding rain kicked up dust, caking it into corners and gears and pulleys they’d be digging out for weeks on end. 

This was not the world he’d found, adapted to, and created anew. This was unacceptable.

* * *

Her eyes were wide. She had never seen anything like it; the same thing that trickled beautiful patterns over the glass windows of their domed cage was flooding the ground below, the few poor souls who dared search for family or belongings battered forward and backward against the currents. Not for the first time, she wished for a rope, though this time it was to bring others up rather than to take herself down. 

“Miss Giddy said it used to come from the skies. I didn’t think it was possible.” Toast had come up behind her, a matching expression of disbelief. She pressed her hand to the glass, then drew it back, admiring the foggy print left behind. 

“Rain.” Capable tried out the word, matching the sound to the object for the first time. She had never heard it outside of another context – raining bullets, maybe, or raining fire, but never just _rain._ If it weren’t for Miss Giddy, she would have thought “raining” was just another word for “falling.”

“I want to feel it.”

“You can’t.”

“We’ll never see it again, we’ll never know—“

“You can’t.” Toast cut her off forcefully. Capable would have flinched at the harshness if she weren’t so certain Toast was scolding herself as much as Capable. “You know you can’t.”

Capable fell silent and swallowed hard, looking up through the warped glass at the inscrutable sky above. She changed her mind. She had seen something like this before. It clung to her sisters’ cheeks and dripped downward, like smooth tracks of water on glass.

* * *

“This is _fucking incredible!”_

“Won’t be so fucking incredible when you slip off the edge, idiot.”

Nux shoved Slit for that one, and there was a collective cry from the other War Boys as they all fought to regain their footing on the crowded outcropping. The initial downpour had washed away the sand, but they’d ditched their boots just in case. They didn’t trust this weather not to change again, but they didn’t trust it to ever return, either. Kind of a once-in-a-half-life chance, and none of them were about to lose what was left of their time dying like morons falling off a cliff because the sky had decided to start crying or something. 

Higher guards had curled their lips at some of the Boys’ enthusiasm, but Nux was pretty sure it was because they were scared. They were the ones catching heat from the Immortan over shit they couldn’t control. High guards didn’t raid, they barely moved, they just stayed in the Citadel, they didn’t know the thrill of something new, the thirst to explore and conquer. It was drivers and lancers and flamers and the rest that had fought their way outside. They were disasters in the gardens and nothing was coming out of the garage anytime soon—for now, they were free. 

Slit had never looked funnier to Nux, standing there with his shoulders hunched, glaring up at the sky like he could will it to stop being so ridiculous, jostled back and forth by far more enthusiastic Boys. Grease dripped from his forehead into what little white clay hadn’t yet been washed away. “If you’re not gonna enjoy this, quit taking up all our space, you’re hoggin’ it!”

“Hoggin’ it? There’s not enough of this shit for you?”

“Come on, live a little!” Nux shoved him again, and this time Slit growled and grabbed him by the shoulders in return. They grappled, their hands slipping in the water and fighting for a decent grip. The other Boys took notice and immediately chose sides. They whooped and hollered, stamping their feet and splashing. 

“The fuck you know about living—“

Nux just laughed and cut him off with a headbutt. Slit came back with a vicious jab to the jaw, teeth gritted, and despite the fire that flared in his gut as his head snapped around, Nux knew better than to push Slit when he was already this uncomfortable. He put his hands up, grinning, and the War Boys exploded in boos and jeers of “Mediocre!” Slit lowered his fist, teeth bared in a twisted, victorious smile. 

“Pathetic, Nux, even for you!” he had to shout over the rain and the two other fights that had broken out to fill the void left by the last. Nux waved him away carelessly, wiping his eyes and smearing grease, still grinning his skeletal smile. Slit was yanked into one of the other brawls in a matter of seconds, leaving him to massage his jaw and turn his face towards the sky. His brothers’ shouts of glee and war mingled with the rage of the flood below and endless drumming of rain on rock. 

He didn’t expect to have this again. Not in this life, nor in the next.


End file.
